3 Sites for...Having Fun with Chores

Learn how to make routine household tasks more enjoyable

Organizing, cleaning and getting the house in order—not to mention the million other things on your family's to-do list—can be overwhelming. It's hard enough to motivate yourself to start those nagging tasks, but motivating your family to pitch in is near impossible. Luckily, there are clever websites and online tools that put a new spin on the same old chores. Check out our three favorite sites for making tasks more manageable.

ChoreWars.com
Entice the kids or your video game–loving husband to do household chores with this fun fantasy game. After choosing their own avatar, each family member then goes on adventures to collect treasures, battle monsters and score points—all framed around completing household chores. Tasks can be rated based on the amount of effort or time they require, and players are rewarded based on the difficulty level of chores they complete. The Dungeons & Dragons–like game is a fun way to get the whole family excited about checking chores off the list. Photo courtesy of ChoreWars.com.

Handipoints.com
Tired of sounding like a broken record when it comes to asking your kids to do their chores? Turn to Handipoints.com for a virtual solution. This website turns household tasks into a game––parents draw up a chore chart and kids log on as their "Cool Cat" characters. In order to indulge in virtual fun, like buying new clothes for their characters, the Cool Cats must earn money, which they rack up by doing real-life tasks around the house. The animated game encourages kids to work for their goals, while providing them with some fun as well. Photo courtesy of Handipoints.com.

TheOnlineCEO.com
This one's more for the adults than the kids. Making a to-do list is one thing; completing the tasks is another. It can be tough to tackle a growing list of jobs around the house, but The Online CEO makes organizing tasks and managing your time fun and interactive. You enter your list of chores and the site will ask you to prioritize them. Then you can set a timer for yourself as motivation to get working. Once you've completed a task, you can check your performance on a colorful graph. Photo courtesy of TheOnlineCEO.com.